


Only One of You

by CreativWit



Category: S.W.A.T. (TV 2017), S.W.A.T. - All Media Types
Genre: Bros before chicks who think they're more important than the bros, Emotional Constipation, Friendship, Gen, Heartwarming, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Street finally admits he cares, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22077436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativWit/pseuds/CreativWit
Summary: Street comes back from a “nice” date with a sour mood. Being the good friend he was, Luca decides to find out why. The answer isn’t what he expects. Rated T for mature language
Relationships: Dominic Luca & Jim Street, Dominique Luca & James Street
Comments: 16
Kudos: 147





	Only One of You

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Only One of You
> 
> Genre: Friendship
> 
> Rating: T
> 
> Characters: Dominique Luca, James Street
> 
> Pairings: None
> 
> Warnings: None
> 
> Word Count: 1,746 words; six pages on Google Docs
> 
> Author’s Note: Just some soft Luca and Street friendship while I try to figure out some other stories that are in the works. It’s not great, and it’s really rough, but this was written in a couple hours as an informal fic. I hope you guys enjoy anyway.

Duke’s ears perked up before the door even opened. Luca muted the TV and craned his head back, ready to greet his roommate. The intention flew out the window, though, when Street shuffled into the house looking exhausted and six seconds away from locking himself away in his room. Luca frowned as Street gently shut the door and shed his jacket.

The question “What’s wrong?” flew out of his mouth before he could stop it.

Street glanced over at the couch as if just noticing Luca’s presence. “Hey to you, too. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Bullshit. You look like a kicked puppy.”

The response came in the form of rolled eyes. Street hesitated for a moment, shooting a quick look in the direction of his room, before conceding and draping his jacket on the back of the couch. He plopped himself on the other end, Duke in between the two friends. He absentmindedly carded his fingers through the dog’s fur, staring at the silent commercials on the TV. He still didn’t give a verbal answer.

Luca sighed inwardly. So it was going to be like that, huh? “Date not go well?”

Street snorted. “No, it went great, actually.”

Luca didn’t detect any sarcasm in his voice, so he just asked again, “Then what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“You’re lying.”

“And how do you figure that?” Street sighed, exasperated.

“Like I said, you look like a kicked puppy. So what happened?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Ah-ha! _It’s_ nothing, meaning there definitely is _something_ ; you just don’t want to share.”

Street sent him a withering look. “Luca, please. Can we just drop it?”

Luca absolutely did _not_ want to drop it, but Street had asked nicely - practically begged - so he decided to let it slide for the time being. He was going to come back to it eventually, but he’d give Street some time to relax a bit before asking again.

“Okay.”

“Thank you.”

Silence fell over the two of them, save for Duke’s constant movement and the TV once Luca unmuted it. Neither spoke as they watched _Family Guy_ reruns, choosing instead to pet whichever part of Duke was closest to them. At least two episodes passed before Street finally spoke.

“Remind me to never date again.”

Luca snorted, though he was surprised at the sudden statement. “Thought you said the date went well.”

“It...did.”

“Well, it doesn’t exactly _sound_ like it did.”

Street clamped his mouth shut again. Luca withheld a long-suffering sigh, wanting Street to just get it out and over with. He decided to wait a little longer.

Another minute passed.

“She fought me for the bill.”

“But you were a gentleman and still paid for it anyway, _yes?”_ Luca shot him a look from the corner of his eye. He was mostly joking, but the chivalry in him also still wanted to know the answer.

Street rolled his eyes and gave a soft grin. “Of course, I did. I’m better than that.”

“Good man. The world needs more of them.”

A quiet laugh came from Street’s side of the couch. “She was really nice.”

“You keep saying that. Did she dump you on the first date?”

Street shook his head. “No,” he responded solemnly, “I dumped her.”

At this, Luca turned his head fully and muted the TV again. Street refused to look in his direction. “Don’t. Don’t tell me.”

“Don’t tell you what?” Street sounded genuinely confused, but Luca could feel the dread building up in him.

“Don’t tell me it’s some kind of self-esteem thing ‘cause I know you better than most, and you might act all confident and shit, but you still have some self-worth issues-”

Street narrowed his eyes at the silent TV. “Jesus Christ, Luca. Give me _some_ credit. No, I didn’t drop her ‘cause of ‘self-esteem issues.’ I wouldn’t have tried dating if I wasn’t sure.”

A frown etched itself onto Luca’s face. “Then what was it?”

“She...said things.”

“Things like?”

“I dunno. I don’t think she even realized she was saying them.”

Luca took a moment to comprehend. “So...So she said...she said _things_ that you _didn’t like_ \- enough to the point where you won’t go on a second date with her - but you don’t...you don’t know _what_ those things were?”

He could see the frustration settling on Street’s face, and Luca was suddenly worried that he was missing something really important, but he honestly couldn’t figure out what underlying message Street was trying to give. At the moment, Street was being pretty vague, and Luca definitely needed some added context to figure out what was bothering his roommate.

“No, that’s not it. She-” Street cut himself off, took a deep breath, tried again. “We were talking about our personal lives, people we know. You know, family, friends, coworkers…”

“Okay…?”

Street held his chin in his hand, elbow propped up on the sofa’s armrest. “She sounded really nice, a sociable person. She’s a _sommelier_. I didn’t even know that was a fucking _thing_.”

“The hell’s a sommelier?”

“Some kind of wine professional or something. I tuned it out a bit. Too busy staring at her face.”

Luca raised an eyebrow and gave a smug smirk. “Her face, huh?”

“Shut the hell up. Don’t be a pig.” Luca could still see some amusement on Street’s face, though.

“Alright, alright,” Luca chuckled, “What happened next?”

“I started telling her about my job, about the team, about...well, _you_.” Street suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

Luca attempted to ignore a tightening feeling in his chest. The way Street said that made it seem so ominous. He found himself desperately praying that he hadn’t somehow been the unintentional deal-breaker for Street’s potential relationship.

“Told her about, uh, you know, how we live together, some of the stupid shit we get up to, the even dumber shit when Tan is with us. Told her about when we’re partnered on the job. Told her about…” Street cleared his throat and made it a point to never look in Luca’s direction. “Told her about how great of a friend you are.”

So what if there was a soft, happy feeling in his chest when he finally heard that Street appreciated him as a friend? His teammate was as emotionally-stunted as a person could get. Luca considered this an accomplishment and made a mental note to rub it in the team’s face the first chance he got. The feeling dimmed a bit, though, when he saw the frustration return to Street’s face.

“But then she had this... _look_ on her face. It was like she was disgusted or something. She asked me, ‘you _live_ with him?’ and when I told her yeah, she kinda frowned. She said, ‘Don’t you think it’s weird that a guy, like, double your age asked you to live with him?’”

Luca’s heart stopped for a moment, and his mouth went dry. The fuck did she mean by that? Why did she have to make it sound so _creepy?_ Luca had merely asked Street to room with him to help out a _friend_ , if not to repay Street for letting him bunk in his old apartment for months when Luca didn’t have a home.

“The conversation went on like that for the rest of dinner. She kept making snide comments on you: ‘He’s how old?’ ‘He doesn’t have a girlfriend?’ ‘He’s still a SWAT officer? Does he even have retirement plans?’ She just kept _going._ ”

_Huh,_ Luca thought. He was at a loss for words. Street threw away a relationship because she didn’t like _Luca_. That was...heartwarming, but Luca still couldn’t help but feel guilty.

Luca shook his head incredulously. “Kid, you really didn’t have to drop her because she didn’t like me, you know that right?”

Only then did Street’s head snap in his direction, eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed. “Now who’s the one with self-esteem issues?”

Rolling his eyes, Luca replied, “I mean it, dumbass. So what if she didn’t like me? _You_ liked her. I would’ve been okay with it.”

“That’s not the fucking point, _‘dumbass.’_ The point is, you always have my back no matter what happens. You genuinely care for my well-being, despite how much of an asshole I’m am. You came first in my life, and no new person - no _potential_ _date_ \- should be able to get in the way of that. You don’t see Annie hating us, making things complicated with us and Deacon. As it _should be_.”

Luca had to admit that Street did make sense. In all honesty, it’d be the same way for Luca and his relationships, too. Then again, most of his girlfriends left because of some trait of his, whether it be his commitment to his job, his insomnia, his enthusiasm, or whatever else they could think up. But, still, if it wasn’t any of those reasons, then he would definitely end a relationship if they dared to insult his friends - his _family_ \- in any way, shape, or form. Hearing Street fend for him, though, that felt nicer to him than he’d ever admit.

So, instead of continuing a heartfelt conversation Street was obviously awkward about, Luca settled for a soft, “Well, thank you.”

He could see Street hesitate before swallowing thickly and giving a short nod, turning his head back to the TV. Luca wondered if there was something else he should say, but he couldn’t think of anything appropriate and not totally cliché. Drawing a blank, he settled on unmuting the TV once more, even though it was halfway through the next episode and they didn’t know what the hell was happening. 

It wasn’t until they were heading to bed a few hours later that Street spoke again. He had paused while entering his bedroom, Luca and Duke making their way past him to Luca’s room. The older man barely caught the soft-spoken words.

“I know it sounds really cheesy and shit, but...there are a lot of different girls out there,” Street murmured, choosing to stare at the ground rather than Luca, “and there’s only one of you.”

Luca blinked, bewildered, and opened his mouth to form a reply, but Street had already entered his room and closed the door. Luca shut his mouth and glanced down at Duke, who was sitting on his haunches at Luca’s feet, head tilted. The poor dog looked almost as confused as Luca felt.

Luca gave a silent snort, turning and heading towards his room. _Yeah, kid. Love you, too._


End file.
